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LAWN CARE PESTICIDES ARE POISONOUS
This is
a story of a trusting consumer, Brenda Jones, who explains
that she hired a lawn care service, TRUGREEN ChemLawn, only to
find that the pesticides being used were poisonous. The
commonly used weed killer, atrazine,
and synthetic
pyrethroid bug-killer, bifenthrin, applied to her property
resulted in the acute poisoning of Ms. Jones and her two
children, ages eight and four. After trying for nearly
one-year since the incident to recover from the exposure and
continuing symptoms, and having received no assistance from
the company and state regulators, Ms. Jones says that it is
urgent for the public to be aware of her story before more
people are poisoned.
“My
New Year’s wish,” says Ms. Jones, “is that our county
and state regulators wake up to the devastating effect that
these toxic chemicals can have on people’s lives.” If the
public were not led to believe that these pesticides were
safe, as I was,” she argues, “then perhaps more people
would push for laws to protect us from the unnecessary use of
these chemicals.” Ms. Jones says she feels misled by the
company about the hazards of common lawn chemicals and the
failure of regulators to protect her family and the public.
The
pesticides that poisoned Ms. Jones include the herbicide
atrazine and the insecticide bifenthrin. Atrazine, a triazine
herbicide, has emerged as one of the most widely used and
controversial weed-killers on the market today, manufactured
by a number of chemicals including Dow AgroSciences. According
to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), atrazine is
known to cause acute effects ranging from fatigue, dizziness,
nausea, abdominal pain, and vomiting to eye, skin and
respiratory irritation, shortness of breath, and asthma.
Numerous studies link the herbicide to prostrate, ovarian,
breast and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancers. Synthetic
pyrethroids, like bifenthrin, have similar effects including
cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain, and is
commonly known to create perpetual heightened sensitivity to
chemicals even in low volumes.
Ms.
Jones describes the incident as typical of lawn care
applications in her area and recalls the applicator telling
her that the chemicals are so safe that he does not need to
wear a mask. Yet as soon as the spraying began, some 15 feet
from where she stood, she immediately felt a burning in her
chest and throat, developed an incessant cough, and ran into
the house. That evening her children began complaining of
dizziness and stomach aches, and her dog was wheezing and
vomiting.
“The
pesticide applicators demonstrate repeatedly that they do not
understand the dangers associated with these poisons, or just
don’t care how they are harming others,” says Ms. Jones.
“Since I was poisoned, I’ve witnessed numerous applicators
use poisons two feet from where children are playing, like
it’s nothing.”
Ms.
Jones was diagnosed by her doctor with pesticide-poisoning and
has spent much of the last year in doctor’s offices. Her
distinguished 15-year career, that has included employment at
hospitals like Johns Hopkins Medical Center and Stanford
University, has come to an abrupt end. Upon going to a lung
specialist for persistent shortness of breath and dizziness,
she was told that the damage was irreversible and that her
airway was now reactive – a condition with no real treatment
except the absence of chemicals in her environment.
Her
eight-year old son Jeffrey has been permanently removed from
his school due to reactions he gets to pesticide treatments
nearby or on the school premises. When Ms. Jones asked the
applicator near the school not to spray during school hours,
he replied that weed killers and pesticides are registered
with the EPA, are safe to use, and will not hurt children.
"Atrazine
poses a serious cancer risk for millions of Americans and
exposure to synthetic pyrethroids is an increasing health
problem," says Jay Feldman, Director of Beyond Pesticides
in Washington, D.C. “People, including applicators, neglect
how toxic these bug and weed killers are only to find
themselves caught in a web of illness. Companies, federal and
state regulators downplay the hazards of commonly used
pesticides.”
After
three months of leaving messages and trying to figure out how
to notify the state of her poisoning, she finally got in touch
with the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of
Entomology and Pest Control. The agency investigated her claim
by contacting the lawn care company. State inspector Mark
Beynon determined that too much time had elapsed to do an
on-site inspection or soil sample. Her case has recently been
reopened by his superior.
“What
happened to Brenda and her family unfortunately is not
unique,” says Beyond Pesticides Projects Director, Shawnee
Hoover. “We support Ms. Jones in her efforts to warn the
public about the hazards of these pesticides. If the
government won’t do it – then the people have to.”
According
to Alan Becker of Florida’s Department of Health, all
physicians in Florida are supposed to report
pesticide-poisoning incidents to the department. Becker
confirms that compliance with the mandatory requirement is
very low. Pesticide poisonings are frequently misdiagnosed or
go unrecognized, he says. The federal government does not have
a system to track pesticide poisoning, having shut down the
Pesticide Incident Monitoring System (PIMS) in 1981.
“The
assault on Ms. Jones and her family will continue as long as
lawn care pesticides are allowed to be widely and freely used.
There are so many non-toxic alternatives that don’t poison
people and the environment,” says Jay Feldman, Director of
Beyond Pesticides. “Lawn care pesticide use should stop.”
“We
are loving parents and would never consent to have our
children exposed to any chemical that would harm them,” Ms.
Jones says. “If only I had known.”
VIEW
 The
Timeline of Ms Jones's Story
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